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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7140458" data-attributes="member: 996">Druids became my favorite class fairly early on, when Magic-users had started to pall a little.&nbsp; The terse explanation of what the Druid was got me curious and I looked into Celtic mythology and fiction based on it, and got pretty into it, really.&nbsp; The AD&amp;D version was off in left field (typical for D&amp;D, really), but hey, it was a class that cast 3rd level spells (including Call Lightning) at 3rd level and Shapechanged at 7th (not got Shapechange as a 7th level spell, at 7th level, 3/day), and they could ultimately get as many as 14 HD (CON added to each of those y'know), when the fighter only got 9.&nbsp; Sure you had to fight for those last 3 levels and were prettymuch screwed after that, but it was still a pretty awesome run, and it's not like I ever actually did run up against the cap.I've found each subsequent version of the D&amp;D Druid after 1e disappointing on some level (yeah, even 3.x's coDzilla Druid) - until 5e.&nbsp; OK, it's not casting Call Lightning at 3rd level, but hey...&nbsp;Spell list, Shapechanging.&nbsp;I thought Circle of Oak was a cooler name than Circle of the Land.&nbsp; Going into Druids' place in society (they were priests, seers, keepers of lore, healers and judges in ancient Celtic tribal cultures) would have been nice.&nbsp; De-emphasize the hippie tree-hugger stereotype.Ogham wands could've made a nice focus.The weapon list could have been more Celtic (swords, spears, javelins, darts, slings), the whole scimitar as a stand-in for sickles wasn't the greatest, and the sickles &amp; mistletoe were an 18th Century 'druid revival' thing, anyway.&nbsp;A few more Circles might be fun.&nbsp; A Circle of Stone(s) (or of the Sky) that goes in for dolmens and henges and chromlechs and is particularly good at divination, especially prophecy.&nbsp; A Circle of Blood that performs human sacrifice and incites berserker rages in their allies.&nbsp; A Circle of Fire that, well, performs human sacrifice and... actually, the Druid has the Fire connection covered, just wanted to reference The Wicker Man, there.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />&nbsp; Some fluff contrasting Druids' 'Old Religion' with Clerics' worship of the Gods (I was disappointed that 4e didn't take the plunge and associate the Primal power source with the Primordials), maybe some crunch to make it that much more interesting.&nbsp; Backgrounds or notes on adapting Backgrounds to the Druid (their role in society again).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7140458, member: 996"] Druids became my favorite class fairly early on, when Magic-users had started to pall a little. The terse explanation of what the Druid was got me curious and I looked into Celtic mythology and fiction based on it, and got pretty into it, really. The AD&D version was off in left field (typical for D&D, really), but hey, it was a class that cast 3rd level spells (including Call Lightning) [i]at 3rd level[/i] and Shapechanged at 7th (not got Shapechange as a 7th level spell, at 7th level, 3/day), and they could ultimately get as many as 14 HD (CON added to each of those y'know), when the fighter only got 9. Sure you had to fight for those last 3 levels and were prettymuch screwed after that, but it was still a pretty awesome run, and it's not like I ever actually did run up against the cap. I've found each subsequent version of the D&D Druid after 1e disappointing on some level (yeah, even 3.x's coDzilla Druid) - until 5e. OK, it's not casting Call Lightning at 3rd level, but hey... Spell list, Shapechanging. I thought Circle of Oak was a cooler name than Circle of the Land. Going into Druids' place in society (they were priests, seers, keepers of lore, healers and judges in ancient Celtic tribal cultures) would have been nice. De-emphasize the hippie tree-hugger stereotype. Ogham wands could've made a nice focus. The weapon list could have been more Celtic (swords, spears, javelins, darts, slings), the whole scimitar as a stand-in for sickles wasn't the greatest, and the sickles & mistletoe were an 18th Century 'druid revival' thing, anyway. A few more Circles might be fun. A Circle of Stone(s) (or of the Sky) that goes in for dolmens and henges and chromlechs and is particularly good at divination, especially prophecy. A Circle of Blood that performs human sacrifice and incites berserker rages in their allies. A Circle of Fire that, well, performs human sacrifice and... actually, the Druid has the Fire connection covered, just wanted to reference The Wicker Man, there. ;) Some fluff contrasting Druids' 'Old Religion' with Clerics' worship of the Gods (I was disappointed that 4e didn't take the plunge and associate the Primal power source with the Primordials), maybe some crunch to make it that much more interesting. Backgrounds or notes on adapting Backgrounds to the Druid (their role in society again). [/QUOTE]

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